AND now the bad news from the Bureau of Internal Revenue: Government is slowly but steadily compiling all data on those tingi[ (retail) load system of telcos for cellphones for a more comprehensive tax measure that would shore up further revenue collection (outside of the 12% RVAT).

The good news: It would take a long time (read: eternity) before they could really tag the individual or sari-sari store retailers of cellphone loads and subject these to tax.

That is why they're content for the moment to just tag "at source" the two (three?) giant telcos Globe and Smart and their second or third line of big dealers whose combined sales alone already runs to billions. Read more